Evidence of meeting #10 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was air.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
I'd like to talk about a comment you made, Mr. Rousseau.
You said, “We hire based on merit.”
Don't you think that the ability to communicate with French-speaking customers in their language ought to be one of the skills required for hiring your employees?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chairman, I apologize. The audio of the question broke up, so I didn't fully hear the question.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
Earlier, you told this committee:
“We hire based on merit.”
My question is this: Don't you think that the ability to communicate with French-speaking customers in their language ought to be one of the skills required for hiring your employees?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
I think I said that. I said we hire on merit, with a focus on hiring bilingual employees, so they can speak in both official languages to all our clients.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you very much, Ms. Ashton.
Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.
The next question will be asked by the first vice-chair of the committee, Mr. Godin.
You have the floor for five minutes, Mr. Godin.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Rousseau, you said earlier that your record was improving. I asked you about what indicators you might have used as a basis to make this statement, and you mentioned the numbers reported by the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada and other figures you might have used.
Can you tell me precisely what indicators you use? I'd like to remind you in passing that the data for the 2020 year and the 2021 year may be unreliable, because Air Canada was less active and there were far fewer passengers. It's therefore only to be expected that the number of complaints to the commissioner would have decreased during that period.
Can you tell me precisely which indicators you used as a basis for saying that your record was improving?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chairman, that's absolutely correct. Although we monitored 2020 and 2021, we're not using those years as an indicator, so we have to go back to 2019, when we had almost 52 million customers travel on our planes throughout the year. Again, on a relative basis, on a rate basis, the number of complaints declined year over year, given the growth in customers.
5:20 p.m.
Vice President, Government and Community Relations, Air Canada
I'd like to add something.
We were, of course, hit hard by the pandemic, but we nevertheless carried between 13 million and 14 million passengers…
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
I apologize for interrupting, Mr. Rheault. I appreciate your presence with us today, but my question is for Mr. Rousseau.
He said that he had indicators showing that his record had improved. As president and chief executive officer, what were the indicators he used? Don't tell me that there were fewer passengers, because I understand that very well, and mentioned it in my question.
Mr. Rousseau, here is my question. On the basis of what specific indicators can you make that claim—you questioned some of the figures used by the commissioner—can you clarify this point? Your answer is very evasive, once again. Can you please give me an answer?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chairman, again, I'll reinforce my answer that one of the key indicators is the rate of complaints to the number of customers whom we serve and the interactions we have with them. That is one of the key measures that we would apply to our performance.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
If we rely on the official languages commissioner's numbers when the time comes for us to look at your record for 2022, Mr. Rousseau, we will likely see an increase in the number of complaints. If that's the case, will you promise this committee that you will take steps to heighten the French fact at Air Canada?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chairman, that's always been our objective, and we will certainly continue, as David mentioned, to look at new measures to improve our performance as well.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Rousseau, I understand that this is your objective and that it was also the objective of your predecessors, but it's not working. The results are not there. Can you do some brainstorming or go on a retreat to come up with new ideas, and introduce mechanisms that would actually yield results? What we want is to protect the French language.
5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chairman, I agree with the member's question. We have the same objective, so we will find different measures, if required, to improve our performance. That's what continuous improvement is. We have committees internally that look at this. Arielle and Lucie, our two executive vice-presidents, just spoke to many of our staff to solicit their input as well, so we continue to find ways to improve our performance, and that will never stop.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Rousseau, I know that you are full of good intentions.
Now, what I can claim is that the methods used in the past don't work. I'm dismayed, Mr. Rousseau, about the highly evasive answers given earlier. You spoke about hours of work, first over a year, and then over seven years, one hour per person, one hour per teacher, it was anything but convincing.
We would simply like to be reassured. Are you willing to make a commitment to the committee? Stop exploring possibilities, analyzing things and consulting your committees. Can you do something concrete and set something up that would yield the right solution?
I don't have the solution, Mr. Rousseau, but I would simply like you and your senior management to take the steps required to achieve short-term results. Can you commit to doing that before this committee today?
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Godin.
We are now going to move on to the final questions for today's meeting.
Ms. Patricia Lattanzio, you have five minutes.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In closing, Mr. Rousseau, could you speak to us about the roles and responsibilities that are unique to Air Canada in maintaining the official languages of Canada?
Did you hear the question, Mr. Rousseau, or...? I see you hesitating. I can repeat it.
5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chairman, just to confirm, the question was what roles and responsibilities are integral to Air Canada with respect to the Official Languages Act.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Rousseau, I would just like to hear you speak to us about the roles and responsibilities that are unique to Air Canada in maintaining the official languages of Canada.
5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Mr. Chair, as mentioned earlier, one of our executive vice-presidents, Arielle Meloul, is the official languages champion for Air Canada. She oversees the department headed by David Rheault, as well as training. As David mentioned earlier, we have a dedicated set of trainers in French, and other languages, as well, but primarily French.
As I mentioned earlier, the progress that we're making or the ideas that we're generating come to the executive committee, which is myself and our five executive vice-presidents, all of whom are bilingual.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would like to ask Mr. Rousseau to give us his answer in writing. Ms. Meloul-Wechsler is not here today and all of us understand the question. The response could be sent to us in writing.
I would now like to get back to you, Mr. Rheault.
You spoke earlier about the regulation. In response to a question from my colleague Mr. Arsenault, you said that one of the regulations stated that at least 5% of passengers on a flight had to be francophone for bilingual services demand to be considered significant.
Could you provide us with a copy of your regulations so that we could understand how it works?
5:25 p.m.
Vice President, Government and Community Relations, Air Canada
The manner in which significant demand for bilingual services is to be calculated is set out in one of the government's regulations. We can, of course, send the reference to the committee.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Do you think this particular regulation should be bolstered?
5:25 p.m.
Vice President, Government and Community Relations, Air Canada
In the bill that was introduced, the government announced that it intended to make other airline companies subject to the requirement to serve Canadians in French, but we believe that the flight routes subject to this obligation would be the same as those specified in the regulations. Otherwise, confusion could be created for passengers.